


Bring Me Shelter

by VisionaryGalaxy



Series: The Symphony of Our Catastrophe [5]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Chess, Don't copy to another site, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Nightmares, Pining, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 22:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19238656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VisionaryGalaxy/pseuds/VisionaryGalaxy
Summary: Nightmares and late night chess.





	Bring Me Shelter

   It was late, too late for Erik to creeping down old hallways and stepping across creaking floorboards aimlessly. Before he’d slipped from the too large bed, Erik had glanced at the bright red numbers on the nightstand and grimaced at the hour. Two in the morning and everyone should be fast asleep without a care in the world, exhausted from days of training.

   Except that wasn’t quite true. Erik ghosted his fingertips against cracked plaster walls, feeling the metal beneath humming and reveling in the familiar iron workings, rusty and aged. The sound of them struggling on was like a familiar lullaby, one he listened to most nights.

   This night, however, there was a different kind of metal in the air, settling on his tongue with the taste of warmth and blood. Downstairs a watch moved back and forth, pacing around and around until it would pause and inevitably begin the circuit again.

   Erik wondered how often that metal did this dance at night, if it too was plagued by nightmares. He never came to the east wing on his nightly excursions, recognizing that it was secluded for a reason, that Charles needed peace and distance to find his own sleep.

   But Charles wasn’t sleeping now. Erik didn’t even have to think before he was making his way in the direction of the study, moving with habitual stealth in the darkness. It had been strange, attempting to fall asleep without the sound of Charles’ breath only meters away from him, the hitched breathing, the distant hum that was his power, keeping watch over their motel room. Erik had grown used to it, grown used to Charles, and embarrassingly enough, grown used to his simple affection.

   The lightest of touches swept across his mind, nothing but the glancing of awareness and the impression of welcome as Charles recognized his presence. He missed that too.

   Erik entered the study quietly and was unsurprised to find Charles sitting in his usual chair across from the carefully placed chess board. The pieces were all frozen in time as they waited to finish their game from the night before. The sight was strangely comforting.

   “Couldn’t sleep?”

   Erik pretended not to see the knowing expression, choosing instead to simply drift to his own chair, settling into its soft cushions, “no more then you.”

   Charles’ lips twitched at his words, as though there was something amusing about it. Yet, Erik couldn’t miss the darkness under those eyes, the exhausted droop in the corners. It was odd to think that Charles found it easier to sleep in the creaky motel rooms then his own home.

   Perhaps he missed Erik’s presence too.

   “Who’s turn?” Erik asked.

   Charles nodded at him, “yours, I think. Though I hope you’ve given more thought to your strategy.”

   That made Erik smirk.

   They didn’t speak again. Their pieces moved slowly across the board, Erik scoring pawn after pawn while Charles inevitably tried to take the defensive. It was soothing, remarkably so, sitting here across from him and listening to the crackle of the fire and staring at focused blue eyes.

   “Check,” a quiet murmur.

   Erik frowned down at the play, glaring at the bishop he’d somehow not noticed and trying to pick his next move carefully.

   “If you’re tired, I could help,” Charles said after another long moment.

   Glancing up, Erik found Charles studying him with those all-seeing eyes. There was no presence in his head, seeking out his thoughts, so Erik just shrugged, “I’m fine, though you look like you’re about to keel over.”

   It wasn’t an exaggeration. Charles looked pale, uncomfortable, like a passing breeze would knock him off his feet. The thought made his stomach turn, an old protective urge stirring inside him that Charles always managed to inspire. He nudged his bishop into the path of the rook.

   “Cheers Erik,” he replied with a wry smile, shaking his head.

   “Are you alright?”

   Charles’ smile faltered at the earnest question, “I will be.”

   Erik doubted it. He knew from experience that Charles could suppress Erik’s nightmares or at least make them less disruptive, as he’d done on the road trips, but he also knew that his telepathy didn’t extend to his own dreams.

   Erik hummed in acknowledgement, unsure of what words could sooth Charles. The feeling was foreign to him, wanting to comfort someone like this and Erik was loath to say the wrong thing. This had been happening more and more often as of late, the urge to wrap Charles in his arms and hold him closely, to run a hand through his hair or over his skin. Affection was dangerous in his line of work, but he couldn’t deny that with Charles, the consequences seemed just a little further away.

   “I mean it you know, there is no reason for both of us to be sleep deprived,” he sacrificed knight and even Erik knew it would be checkmate in three.

   Always so kind, so eager to help.

   “I’m used to it, and besides,” Erik risked shooting him a wide grin. “Who would you play chess with all night if I slept?”

   What he really meant was let me help distract you, let me do what I can to take care of you. I want you to let me, I want you to want me to.

   Those bright blue eyes seemed to soften and for a panicked moment, Erik wondered if some of those thought had filtered past his flimsy shields and into Charles’ head.

   “Thank you.”

   Erik’s heart swelled at the expression Charles wore, even as something further down cracked painfully, the realization that this might very well be the first time someone had ever made such an offer. He would have thought Raven perhaps, but then, Charles was always taking care of her, doing everything he could to the point that he let nobody else help.

   Erik decided then and there with a familiar conviction born of emotions he’d rather not examine, that he’d be the one to do it, he’d be the one to stay by Charles’ side and take care of him the way he deserved.


End file.
